The Material: A conversation with author Camille Bordas
Have you ever found yourself wishing comedy could be taught, especially after a joke fell flat at work or a family gathering? What if you could actually study and master the art of being funny, earning an MFA in comedy right in Chicago? This isn’t just a fantasy—it’s the intriguing premise of Camille Bordas’ The Material, a novel that follows a cast of characters who are connected to a Comedy MFA program at a university in Chicago. Over the course of the novel, we jump from student, to instructor, to controversial guest-faculty comedian, and back to the students. Can these kids actually learn to be funny? How does one excavate the everyday bits of life and turn them into comedy? And who gets to joke without limitations? A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
“Entertaining and perceptive.”—The Chicago Tribune
“[The Material] is a stream of neurotic consciousness flowing from person to person, an extended ‘take my smartphone — please’ routine, and an impressive piece of Q3 reading.”—The New York Times
“The Material is laugh-out-loud funny and offers an incisive look at the deep sadness of trying to find a laugh when you need it the most.”—The Chicago Review of Books
About the author
Camille Bordas, a French writer currently living in Chicago, began her literary career in France with Partie commune, which won the French Best Second Novel Award. After moving to the U.S. with her husband, writer Adam Levin, she started writing short stories in English, featured in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Bordas is the author of three prizewinning novels, including the recent How to Behave in a Crowd, her first novel in English, and the earlier Partie commune and Les Treize Desserts, written in her native French. She has been named a Guggenheim Fellow.